Phantom comes to Teakland …

 

railfans do trips, for enjoying the rail and its ways..and the fans undertake quite a trouble to make it happen. teakland tour happened as an offshoot from another trip that some of us on railkerala had been planning. the beauty of this trip was that personal emergencies combined with calendars that show free slots, can still be a powerful combination that make a trip possible

feb 10th, 2012... one day before the 2nd saturday holiday in february and a day before the much planned kozhikode get-together of railkerala. jay-TVC, binai-TCR, vibin-SBC, we all decided to quickly visit the teakland, incidentally this has been a route that all three of us havent visited and each been longing to see. i had a personal emergency and had to be in palakkad, so just spun the idea around with jay & binai who immediately said yes. three of us decided to meet at shornur and then decide from thereon. i reached palakkad on 10th morning on the trivandrum weekly express... got a lift from my uncle, who took me straight to a idli & tea shop at sultanpet, it was just 0330 hrs. it was an awesome tea but couldnt bear the dreadful mosqi's enjoying themselves on my blood. cut it short, after giving some quick sleep, got ready and hit the olavakkot station, bought a express ticket. rapti was my train, however the cbe-maq passenger rolled in early to pf1 and the empty seats were too tempting, i decided to get in and seat myself. to my unpleasant experience, an old person was sitting opp me and he was drunk... so decided to move around and found another seat. couple of mins later, rapti rolled onto pf2 and i decided to make a run for it, as it would take me to srr faster. so off i went grabbed a seat on s6 coach. i was mindful of the fact that i was in kerala and weird rules exist where you cant board a particular coach with II class ticket... but i needed to rest for the 1 hour journey to srr, so i sat in and started reading my newspaper... times of india palakkad edition. the times looked thin and scantily colored horrible texture of the paper, in-comparison to what we get in bangalore. the train started its journey and i got into some bit of a conversation with my fellow passenger, who was a season ticket holder. our conversations stretched from american to iran and down to associated trouble from mullaperiyar. he was of the opinion that tamilnadu was ill-treating the malayali traders - his fraternity - in coimbatore and other parts of tn. he saw no justification in that, when tamils in kerala were not being harmed. kerala not accepting tn produces of vegetables, meat etc were good to him, as he felt imports from karnataka & ap were cheaper. i gave him a profoudn yes and opined that yes, its time tn's medhavittam is given a dust-bin and their goods be send back ... atleast then our kerala manavar's will cultivate and produce stuff. as a videsha malayali, i know its a bit over the moon to expect that but i guess its not a hype

mid-way through our conversation, my eyes was inspecting the beauty of bharathapuzha fed land.. they look haritha green, but have started drying up because the sun is already dressing to shine its armour. talking about the armour, who best can be the armour of railways, other than the tte... so incame with a bang, a lady about 45-50 yrs, wearing a bag and holding a receipt book, she came in and stretched a palm at me with her ball-point pen looking at my eyes. i realise then its for the travelling ticket, she collects it from me looks deeply at the paper and scribbles across it. next she asks my fellow passenger and he gives his season pass, which wasnt received well by the examiner. she takes a seat and then get the ticket of an other passenger duo, who was comfy sitting on the slb,... they were from north india and had boarded the train from cbe.. they guys were travelling with 2nd class ticket to ers and hence had to shell out 350 rs each... wow thats a loot. she didnt blink her eyes, took the money from the chaps and wrote out the receipt. in her passing comments to the st traveller, she said ' ningal idhil yatra cheyyan paadilla keto'

well im still reaching shornur... and as i enter the y, i can spot some locos in the yard, first i passed was a ers wdg3a just below the overbridge, then a wap1 from rpm and some more locos all around. my breakfast i realised wasnt done, so went about the station building and got myself a idlie, vada combo. starkly surprised at the size of the stuff, i just gobbled it up...

to reach teakland, we had to take the passenger and i went to the ticket counter to buy our tickets... the rush was nothing abnormal, its always crowded here i reckon. our nation is overflowing with people and no q at any place is short these days, as it seems. even at a kfc counter where 8 pieces of chicken is sold at 700 rs, you will find the rush being unbearable for comfort... well, reality bites... as i was waiting ernadu exp rolled into the station, after many other trains, one after other... srr is indeed a true junction and quite a busy one at that. i met up with jay & binai and then collected our parcels for lunch... our rake the passenger train was waiting on pf1.

the train left the station at 1200 hrs and it was a very quite starting....... we run right and ran parallel with the kozhikodan line for a while and then ran into the sidelined teak bunds. the run was quite a noisy and interesting one. the coaches were getting filled as we ran through the country side and that gave us a good sense that this line is very much in demand and teakland really yearns for some more trains, unfortunately the line is single and not maintained properly too.... kerala tiled houses passed by and some paddy fields which are already nearing being parched. the teaks have shed leaves and look woody. not a single place we had to wait for signals, except for the lone crossing station. we waited at this station for the pairing train to pass and then we chugged away, often clicking some pics and then a little later we decided to finish our lunch too. our non-veg lunch of rice & fish curry was quite a interesting pack.... there was one mathi fry and the ' fish curry ' had only chaar and no fish in it.. can you beat this, in the land of fish curry, we were given this raw deal.

pulled into teakland and it was a serene atmosphere there, we were greeted by a 140 yr old rosewood and a ers wdm3a with its rajya-rani rake. our rake parked onto the line, i say this because there is no platform per se to alight. the sun wasnt at its best, so it wasnt very hot, we bought some coke and the shutterbugs went clickety all around. we even spotted a sardarji at this station. it was time to say bye byes to teakland as our strong-man the wdm3a from ers koooooed and said, we need to go and back to srr.
jay & binai sat in the same rake that took them to ers, with a loco change. the single one gave way to a twin, well almost because the wdg3a had a dead wdm3a and i ran into the maq-cbe passenger which was already waiting at another pf.... my journey was quite interesting as it was all roachified, but thankfully exactly at 1740 i reached palakkad.

we planned overnight and made it happen and teakland travel was quite a good get-together for us, it gave me a good break and got 3 of us to cherish our wish. Nilambur we love you and may you be always the teakland of our country... may the rolls royce's and phantoms and beemers come to you for its wood and may you shine royally

Parks with restrictions

Nature is abound with green & freshness… however with the urbanization, there is now no place for the green nature to remain that way…houses, apartments, roads, malls and what not, they are all taking away the precious green space. This obviously has left all wanting with some precious lung space and they come in the names of parks

Bangalore once known as the Garden city was rich with flora & fauna all around, but now we have hardly any space left where we can take some fresh air and relax amongst the green surrounding. thankfully, we have some parks that have been still retained and not yet fallen into the hands of the mafia. However, our wonderful Govt agencies have ensured that you don’t enough of the parks to your liking as & when you need them. Don’t be surprised if you walk to a park and find its gates locked on you… incidentally it appears that there is this rule, which keeps parks open only from 5 am – 9 am and 4.30 pm to 8.30 pm. Its likely that the agencies do not want these parks to be used by mis-creants… but isn't that something law enforcers should look into, rather than keeping people out.

Parks are lung spaces, but local authorities of Bangalore, prefer you to have your lungs intact and therefore don’t want to take any chances with the miscreants !

Wandering about

 

 

 

Pay to use plastic, but it’s a Go-Green tax !

To Go-Green is the latest fad, at-least in the many shopping centers or what we call malls.  I will definitely, say this has been largely forced down their throats by the ever so vigilant (well they just woke-up now) Bangalore City Corporation. BBMP or the City Corporation suddenly realized that plastic covers which are thin in nature are causing some problem now, or will cause problem later to the environment, hence they ordered that all shops must use polythene bags that are over 40microns thick. For years, all knew it, but the corporation bosses of this great city never thought, it’s a must to have this rule implemented. Anyhow, the managed to implement and the Shops & Establishments are now pressed to follow it

So coming to what I had to say… I have been since the inception of this rule paying at every shop to get a plastic bag. Some or  most shops charge a nominal 1 Re, but the charges vary 3, 5, 2 etc. I asked a Showroom that sells branded clothes, as to what this money is helping them with, the cashiers reply was ‘Sir, its to discourage usage of plastic bags’. Did I need to know more ?, ah well of-course the answer is a profound No, but leaves me to think that ‘ Did I help the cause, by paying a charge but still use the plastic ‘. Really speaking, none of us are helping the Go-Green cause by paying 1 Re to 5 Rs for continuing to use a plastic bag. The bags are still around, they are being widely flaunted around, largely distributed by the shops… so what’s the fun

In all, what was once free, is now charged, which means the stores have passed on the burden of a plastic cover totally onto the consumer. The bags were always flashy and it still is, they were always of the same size and it still is. So the Corporation’s green rule has become good for the stores, they rake in additional money.

We pay and use the plastic, but its for a Green cause !

UnChartered Territory - Don Moen

Disastrous surplus

This year Indian agriculture scenario is facing a disaster of a different nature as it seems, from various news items. The moment one hear there is a crisis in this sector, immediately our thinking goes in the direction of a shortage in agricultural output… well this year however, its not shortage but its all about the abundance. Yes, farmers are expecting super duper bumper crops or yield and its causing them some sleepless nights.

Its interesting that we are getting worried about, what ideally should’ve been a happy situation. India – Our country – is abundant with people and there is no shortage of them who desperately need food. It’s a unfortunate reality that a developing country with such a high GDP growth story has people who don’t get a square meal a day. Govt’s after Govt come to power claiming that they will do something different to what has hitherto been done, to make a difference to the starving populace in India…. and we all know in this country how much that has made a difference, really speaking not much

So the question of what’s this surplus worry… or why the surplus output is causing a worry. Well, its really because we in India don’t have any kind of well-working storage systems that can keep these agri produces safe thereby not getting spoilt. The warehouses in our country aren't networked well nor are they well equipped, infact there is not many warehouses that be boasted about. FCI – Food Corporation of India, the Govt owned entity that’s responsible for stocking our food produces, does a very poor job. They were recently picked on for not having done enough during the rainy season, thereby letting grains rot. The roads & railway infra, they are the much needed transportation mechanisms that can mass transport our produces… its in a very poor form too. Roads are in such bad shape, most pot-holed, poorly lit, have no support system for the many drivers that needs to use it. They don’t criss cross our country in a way that would be helpful, time to ask where is the Golden Quadrilateral system that was to changed the shape of our nations roads. Railways, well there is not much space to run the passenger trains, so obviously freight gets lower priority and that means, no ways can railways be depended upon in toto

All said, potatoes, onions are a bumper crop this year… however a consumer in India will not get a great benefit from the surplus, because these extra output is sure to perish at the growers compound or nearby markets…. it will never reach the many millions who need it desperately. Its really time for our Government machinery to take charge and bring happiness in surplus…let some more of us Indians rejoice and have a good aloo paratha or french fries, may a change come that will help us eat onion dosas cheaper than what its now